NORSE MYTHOLOGY

T HE N ORSE WORLD In the south is a realm called Muspell, home of dancing flames. Only those born there can endure it. Black Surt is there waiting for Ragnarok so he can savage the gods and set fire to the world.

In the north is Niflheim, a region of ice and snow. In the heart of this region is the birthplace of rivers.

Between the realms once stretched a huge emptiness known as Ginnungagap. The rivers from Niflheim streamed into the void here. Their venom thickened them and the rivers turned to ice. Layer upon layer of ice formed in the northern part of Ginnungagap. Just as the northern part was frozen, the southern was molten and glowing.

The MIDDLE of Ginnungagap was warm, temperate, and comfortable. The heat of the south met the cold of the north and began to create droplets. From these droplets came life-the giant Ymir.

Ymir was a frost giant, and he was evil. While he slept he began to sweat. A man and a woman grew from the ooze under his left armpit. One of his legs fathered a son on the other leg. Ymir was the forefather of all the frost giants, and they called him Aurgelmir.

More ice in the Ginnungagap melted, and the fluid took the form of a cow. She was called Audumla. Ymir fed off the milk Audumla provided; Audumla fed off the ice. Audumla licked the salty blocks of ice. By the evening of the second day a man’s head had emerged. On the third day, Audumla licked the blocks of ice again-and a whole man came. His name was Buri.

Buri was tall and strong and good looking. In time he had a son called Bor. Bor married Bestla, a daughter of Bolthor-a frost giant. Bor and Bestla had three sons: Odin Vili Ve

T HE DEATH OF YMIR The sons of Bor had no liking for Ymir and the growing gang of frost giants. They eventually attacked Ymir and killed him. His wounds were like springs; so much blood flowed from them that the flood drowned all of the frost giants except Bergelmir and his wife. They floated in a boat made from a hollowed out tree trunk.

Odin, Vili, and Ve carried the body Ymir to the middle of the Ginnungagap. This is where they made the world from his body. They shaped the earth from Ymir’s flesh and the mountains from his unbroken bones; from his teeth and jaws and fragments of his shattered bones they made rocks and boulders and stones.

The brothers used the blood to make lakes and the sea. Then they formed the earth and laid the ocean around it. They raised Ymir’s skull and made the sky from it. They placed the four corners so they reached the ends of the earth.

Under each corner they placed a dwarf. Their names are East, West, North, and South. Odin, Vili, and Ve seized sparks from Muspell and called them the sun and the moon. They placed them high in Ginnungagap to light heaven and earth.

The earth was round and lay within the ring of the deep sea. The sons of Bor marked out tracts of land and gave them to the frost giants and rock giants. This land was called Jotunheim. The giants were so hostile, the brothers built an enclosure farther inland around a vast area of earth. Built fromYmir’s eyebrows, this land was called Midgard.

Midgard was a warm green place. Odin and his brothers created clouds by flinging Ymir’s brains in the sky. Midgard became the realm of men.

Odin, Vili, and Ve were walking the world where earth meets sea. They came across an ash tree and an elm tree which had been ripped from the ground. The sons of Bor raised them and from them created the first man and woman.

Odin breathed the spirit of life into each tree. Vili offered them sharp wits and feeling hearts. Ve gave them the gifts of hearing and sight. The man was called Ask. The woman was called Embla. All the families and nations and races of men are descended from them.

One of the giants living in Jotunheim, the dark haired, dark skinned Narvi, had a daughter called Night. She was married three times. Her first husband was Naglfari-their son was Aud. Her second husband was Annar-their daughter was Earth. Her third husband was the shining Delling, who was related to the sons of Bor. Their son was Day, and he was shiny and bright.

Odin took Night and her son Day and placed them in horse-drawn carriages to ride around the sky every two half days. Night leads the way with her frosty maned Hrimfaxi. Day’s horse is Skinfaxi, with his gleaming mane that lights up the sky and earth alike.

A man called Mundilfari living in Midgard had two children. They were so beautiful that he called his son Moon and daughter Sun. The Aesir-the rulers of Asgard-were angered. They snatched the children and placed them in the sky to guide the chariots of the sun and moon.

Moon leads the way and guides the moon on its path and decides when he will wax and wane.

Sun follows behind. One of her horses is called Arvak because he rises so early, the other is Alsvid because he is immensely strong. The Aesir inserted iron-cold bellows under their shoulder blades to keep them cool. Sun is always in a hurry because she is chased by Skoll, the wolf who is always snapping and growling close behind her.

After the sons of Bor had made the first man and woman, and set Night and Day, Moon and Sun in the sky, they remembered the maggots swarming in the flesh of Ymir. They gave them wits and the shape of men, but they live under the hills and mountains in rocky chambers and grottoes. These man-like maggots are called dwarfs. Their leader is Modsognir, and his deputy is Durin.

The earth was fashioned and filled with men and giants and dwarves. It was surrounded by the sea and covered by the sky. Then the sons of Bor built their realm : Asgard. Asgard is a place of green plains and shining palaces high over Midgard. The two regions were linked by Bifrost, a flaming rainbow bridge. All of the Aesir, the guardians of men, settled in Asgard. Odin Allfather is the oldest and greatest. There are twelve divine gods, and twelve divine goddesses.

All of this, and all of the regions of the world, lie under the branches of the ash Yggdrasill, the world tree. It soars over all that is; its three roots delve into Asgard and Jotunheim and Niflheim, and there is a spring under each. A hawk and eagle sit in it, a squirrel scurries up and down it, deer leap within it and nibble at it, a dragon devours it, and it is sprinkled with dew.

It gives life to itself, it gives life to the unborn. The winds whirl round it and Yggdrasill croons or groans. Yggdrasill always was and is and will be.